Pakistan Asks for Peace Talks With India

MUNIR AHMAD

Published
6:00 pm CST, Thursday, March 27, 2003

Associated Press Writer

Pakistan on Friday urged the United States and Britain to arrange peace talks with India to resolve the intractable Kashmir dispute _ the cause of two wars and perpetual tension on nuclear-armed South Asia.

"We will welcome any proposal on their part to help ensure peace in the region," Information Minister Sheikh Ahmed told The Associated Press in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. "We would like to see them get involved."

Ahmed was responding to a joint statement issued Thursday by Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw asking New Delhi and Islamabad to "consider immediately implementing a cease-fire and taking other active steps to reduce tension."

Powell and Straw said differences between the two sides "can only be resolved through peaceful means and engagement."

India on Friday also welcomed the U.S.-British statement and condemnation of Monday's killing of 24 Hindus in Indian-ruled Kashmir, a former princely state divided between India and Pakistan after British rule ended in 1947.

India accused Pakistan of being involved in the massacre, blamed on Muslim militants.

Pakistan immediately condemned the attack and later accused Indian intelligence of masterminding it and implicating Pakistan to drive a wedge between Islamabad and the United States.

"We welcome that the United States and Britain recognized that Pakistan has not fulfilled the commitment it made to the two countries in June last year to stop infiltration across the Line of Control," India External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said.

"We hope that Pakistan would heed the advice offered, by stopping infiltration and by doing its utmost to cease all aid and abetment to terrorism."

The Line of Control divides the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training militants waging a bloody insurgency in Indian-ruled Kashmir, a charge denied by Pakistan.

India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence over Kashmir, which both claim in its entirety.